Well guys, I have been building guns now for almost 50 years, and I have owned various chronographs for about 35 years. I have used barrels of 22- 28 inches on both 270 Winchesters and on 270 Weatherby mags If we compare barrel length to length and pressure to pressure the truth is that the Weatherby shell only gives about 100 to 120 FPS more, and in MOST cases only beats the Winchester shell by about 80-90 fps.
Bought my first chrono in 1981. I probably have close to 5k rounds entered into my load book now. One of the first things I found out is barrel length does make a difference. Cut a 300Wby down to 24" and it only marginally faster than a 300WM. Cut a 300Wby down to 20" and ya' got an '06. Of course, this is assuming the loads are within reasonable pressures. Only 270Wby's I've chrono'ed were all Mark V's with 26" bbls. A quick glance at my load book and I can't see any that broke much over 3200fps with 150's.
When I bought that chrono it was a novelty out here in the colonies, and other shooters at the range would often ask it they could fire a round over my chrono to see what their velocity was. I soon learned to "warn" the magnum shooters that the recorded velocity was most likely going to be significantly slower than they were led to believe. I had the ancestry of my chrono questioned a couple times..........
Use what you LIKE!!!! The bullet you fire is far more important then the shell that held it before you fire it anyway
Amen. Bullet construction trumps everything else when it comes to killing larger critters. Plus packing a 9lb rifle quickly loses its allure in most elk country.
